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My friend Mary sent me these pictures of her Barbie dolls of yesteryear. Her mother knit clothes for her dolls using knitting patterns from the 1950s.
Look at this great dress with a blue jacket with white trimmed collar. Gotta love that hat!
How about this little number? Is it a sweater under a coat or is it a collar and sleeves for this great coat. Love this hat, too.
What treasures do you have lurking in your Barbie doll suitcases of yesteryear?
Today was some of the easiest charity work I've ever done. I went to the Women At Risk Annual Luncheon at the Waldorf=Astoria in Manhattan and enjoyed good friends, good food all while helping a good cause. My friend Carole is on the Board of WAR and invited me to join her. I'm so glad I did. WAR is the Breast Cancer Program at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, whose mission is to enhance the lives of women who are at high risk for and with breast cancer through research, education and support.
If you want to find out more about how to support WAR (either by donating time or money or services) click HERE.
And just so you know that this is a knitting-related post, I did manage to finish my first simple sock for Secundogeniture while riding the train into Manhattan today.
This is an interesting choice of colors as my boys are half Brazilian and these are the colors of the Brazilian flag (minus the gray).
This weekend I took not one, but two boys, on a Scouting adventure. We went to White Water Challengers to go White Water Rafting on the Lehigh River in White Haven, Pennsylvania.
Here we are rafting down the river.
It was such great fun. It was the coldest rafting trip we've done to date. The temps only got into the high 50s/low 60s and the water was a chilly 40 degrees. We paddled for 5 hours and worked up a hearty appetite. Look what these ingenious Scouts prepared for dinner.
The Scouts cooked delicious Corn Chowder - part homemade - part store bought. It's a packaged soup mix by Frontier Soups.
My mother's London Broil Recipe with tin foil sweet potatoes and green beans.
Each campout our chef Scout prepares a "Scout Surprise". This time our gourmet chef made these delicious Campfire Bananas Foster by Major K Wood (another Scoutmaster). It's absolutely delicious. We substituted the pound cake with Nilla Wafers to make it slightly lighter fare.
We stopped for Sunday brunch at the Hibernia Diner on the way home and I realized I hadn't snapped a Scoutmaster Knitting photo - so we took this one at the diner.
It was a great Mother's Day weekend. The whole family is taking me out to dinner now... so I'll leave you with this. I hope you had a fantastic Mother's Day.
Look! More homemade bread - this time in the form of bread sticks - to go with my nearly homemade lasagne dinner. If you're in the Westport area, I highly recommend going to Villarina's Pasta in the CVS shopping center. They have the best fresh pasta. It's absolutely delicious! Even my boys raved. That's a rare thing.
Oh, and the boys approved of the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. They just have one request. "Mom, when are you going to make the cinnamon rolls?"
So Katie and I headed back into NYC today. This time we got off in Harlem, took the subway to Lexington and 96th Street, walked across to Fifth Avenue to our first goal - The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
My sock LOVED the Met.
Look! Proof that the Egyptians were knitting thousands of years ago. This is totally unbelieveable!
Here's a close-up of the 3,000 year-old-sock. They had Turbo Addis back then? Who knew!
After The Met, Katie and I meandered through Central Park, stopping at the Boat House for a simply scrumptious lunch. Afterwards, we continued west to Strawberry Fields and out of the park, up to the Museum of Natural History. We enjoyed the dinosaurs, mammals and the planetarium movie in this treasure trove of all things wonderful. If you're trying to remember what's in this museum, just watch Night at the Museum - this is the museum from that film.
After the museum, we hitched a ride in the best mode of tourist transportation around - a rickshaw.
We rode through Central Park then got off at The Plaza Hotel at 59th Street so we could stroll down Fifth Avenue and stare at all the spectacular window displays. We stopped at the perfect store for tall young ladies and did some serious damage for Katie.
Here we are back in Westport, off the train, standing by the Saugatuck River enjoying our amazing adventure. Sorry there were no more knitting pictures, but a 3,000 year old sock can only do so much in one day.
My niece is in town visiting this week. I took her to Manhattan for lunch, some sightseeing and a matinee. Here we are in Times Square. Here I am with my sock inside the huge Toys R Us.
See my sock?
Guess which matinee we went to see? Why yes - we saw The Little Mermaid. Katie and I enjoyed it immensely. Disney made it seem like we were actually watching mermaids under water. For some sneak previews, click HERE. My favorite is Ursula in Poor Unfortunate Souls. She was devilishly enchanting. I'm still in awe of the set and costume designers. I've just decided that this is what I want to be when I grow up.
Some very nice ladies took this picture of Katie and me and remarked "You can really tell you're sisters."
Did I mention that they were very nice ladies?
I took primogeniture for his annual eye exam and quickly grabbed a skein of Sockotta yarn and some needles for some basic socks
Either I'm quick or the doctor was slow. I'll let you decide which was the case.
My new knitting friend Kathy (from my Sally Sessions at Knitting Central) is organizing a knitting class at her children's school and I offered to be one of the teachers. We decided to create a garter stitch iPod cozy or cell phone cozy. Here's what we came up with so far.
It's a US size 10.5 needles, remnant bulky single ply wool (un-labeled from the stash).
Front of the cozy. Note the small button in the center front. One of the blanket stitches will be used as the loop/button hole for the button
Back of the cozy. The medium size button is opposite the base of the i-cord. The crochet loop on the end of the i-cord is the button hole for the cozy strap.
Simply loop the cozy around your backpack strap, purse or other object and button. Voila! You now have the perfect holder for your cell phone or iPod. You'll always know where it is!
I did a great deal of knitting this weekend. It was just Wilma and me and we watched a lot of Netflix, namely - Follow the Stars Home, Failure to Launch followed by my favorite Pride & Prejudice. Three movies means I had plenty of time to finish my Market Squares Bag. Here's the finished project - pre-felting
And because the design on the bottom of this bag is so beautiful, I give you a special bottom of the bag shot
Now I just have to find the time to felt it. Then I'll pick out the lining, figure out how to actually line it and add the handles. It's been a really fun bag to knit.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Boys and Girls,
I take great pride in presenting to you my first loaf of bread
I made an individual sized loaf - somewhere between a large roll and a small loaf. It was quite tasty. And guess what? It really did take just 5 minutes a day. Run out and get your copy of this book today and start baking - Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day
I mixed up a batch of dough from the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. It smells so good.
I'm following the recommendation to refrigerate the dough overnight before shaping it into loaves. I have enough dough here to make 4 loaves. I can hardly wait. It has such a wonderful yeasty smell that it's pure punishment to wait.
I was so inspired by everyone's progress on their Market Squares Bags, that I wasted no time knitting a significant portion of my bag today.
You probably know by know that I have a soft spot for blues, greens and purples all mixed together. I'm quite pleased with the way this is turning out. The squares are starting to decrease in size, so from here on out it's all downhill. That should really speed things up.
My Marine Corps buddy Linda sent me THIS GREAT LINK with a pattern to knit a wool helmet liner for Marines. Remember the Red Cross knitting campaigns of days gone past? Are you feeling a bit nostalgic? Are you feeling a bit patriotic? If you want to do some charity knitting that will really be appreciated, think about knitting for the Marines.
Here's the FREE PATTERN for this helmet liner. You can knit a liner in tan, brown, black or charcoal, but Marines prefer tan. These helmet liners will go to Marines stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq.
What are you waiting for! Get your 100% wool out and start knitting your part today.
I just signed up for the summer of socks. It runs from June 21st to September 1st. What could be better?
Go check out Jessica's blog HERE for more information. It sounds like a fun way to spend the summer. Oh. And did I mention that there would be prizes? Lots of prizes.
Today was the last class of the Market Squares Bag at my LYS - Knitting Central. Kathy and Sally brought their finished felted bags. Sally showed us methods for sewing on handles. Kathy brought some fabulous fabric to line her bag. She's also 3/4 done with her next bag! Enough chatting. Let me show you what I'm talking about
Clockwise from the top - Sally's felted bag; Kathy's finished pink & green felted bag; middle - Sally's second bag just started; Kathy's second bag in gold and blue; Jackie's pink/red/gray bag; and my barely started blue, turquoise and multi-colored purple/blue/teal bag
Look at how dazzling Kathy's pink & green bag looks. Don't you just love the green handles? It's gorgeous!
Here's Sally's heather and Noru pink/red/coral bag. I love these long handles. They're the perfect. I bought the same ones in violet. I better get caught up on my knitting!
Now that I've found this book, will I give up knitting entirely? Marcia swears by it. My copy just arrived in the mail and I'm going to give it a try. I'll tell you how it goes.
Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. Apparently you make a batch of dough and store it in your refrigerator for up to 2 weeks - taking only the amount of dough you need to make that meal's bread, rolls or pizza crust. Quick and easy. That sounds like my kind of baking. If you want to be truly convinced - check out this video. You can almost smell the bread baking on your computer screen.
Here's the finished striped poncho for my American Girl Doll
I took the Boy Scouts to Philadelphia yesterday as part of their Citizenship in the Nation merit badge. I decided to make another poncho for my American Girl Doll on this trip.
Here I am in the visitor's center with a period player posing with my knitting.
Our Boy Scout Troop in front of the Liberty Bell.
Here's one of Benjamin Franklin's quotes that fits me to a "T" - I've always been this way as long as I can remember. I think it's one of the reaons I enjoy knitting so much:
"Be always ashamed to catch thyself idle"
The liberty bell was one of the stops on our visit. Betsy Ross's house was another. I was fabulously impressed by Betsy Ross and her industrious entrepreneurial spirit over 200 years ago. She was truly a woman ahead of her time. She sewed our nation's first flag at a time when to do so was a crime of treason. I like to think of myself as an empowered woman, but I doubt that in 1775 I would have had the courage or gumption to do something this amazing. If you are in Philadelphia, I highly encourage you to visit Betsy Ross's home.
Of course, on every Boy Scout adventure there is always some Scoutmaster Knitting. For this outing, I cast on for this Striped Poncho for my American Girl Doll when we boarded the train in Stamford. I knit all day as we walked around Philly (about 6 miles). Shortly after we got on the train to head home I had finished knitting the poncho. Now I just need a little bit of time to weave in the loose ends and add the fringe. It was a great trip and a wonderful learning experience.
I have a few WIPs that I didn't even put on the list. In fact, they're on my UFO (unfinished objects) and FUFO (forgotten unfinished objects) list. Some of them should probably be frogged, but I just haven't had the courage to do so. Here's one great reason that I'm glad I didn't frog this project.
Remember BF Sweater?
I ran out of yarn so long ago and didn't really know what to do about it. I finally decided to test the powers of Ravelry. I did a search for Adrienne Vittadini yarn and found a few people who had some yarn in their stash. I wrote to them and Neurochic responded that not only did she have the right color, but she also had the exact dye lot that I needed. WOW! The yarn gods really must be watching over me. We made a swap - she sent me her 5 skeins of yarn and I sent her a gift certificate to WEBS.
Thanks Neurochic! I appreciate your kindness, speediness and willingness to help out a fellow knitter in need. Now I'll have to add BF Sweater back to my WIP list (instead of the UFO list) and find some time to refocus my attention on it.
I believe in Miracles. Thanks Ravelry. You saved this sweater from a fate worse then death.
I did it. I really did it. I managed to finish the Basic Prayer Shawl in time for Finishing Friday. That's 9 FOs for the month of April. I haven't finished a prayer shawl for my Church's ministry in a very long time. They're so quick and easy. I wonder what took me so long?
The gauge is not terribly relevant for a prayer shawl. The important thing to know is that your prayer shawl should be somewhere between 20x50 inches to 24x60 inches. This one actually ended up being a bit on the small side
Here's the prayer shawl hugging the back of my chair in the Knit Nook. Sock Monkey and Little Lamb seem happy to get a bit of comfort from this handknit bit of love.
It's been 6 weeks since I did my Knitaholics Anonymous 4th Step - and did a searching and fearless moral inventory of my projects. On March 30th I had thirteen WIPs on my plate. I've finished several and started several more. Let's see where things stand today.
Plus, I've cast on and actually finished four more projects and one WIP
That's 8 finished objects so far this month. I wonder if I can manage to finish another WIP by Friday. Yikes. I have a lot of things on my plate today and tomorrow.
Can She Do It? Yes, I believe she can.
The yarn I bought in Italy was for something small and portable that I could knit quickly and easily. I mostly buy sock yarn while traveling and turn my purchase into a handknit souvenir of my trip. But now my sock yarn stash is getting unruly, so I decided to turn my attention to even smaller projects. I went on Ravelry and found Christine's Stay-On Baby Booties by Christine Bourquin.
Here are the WIP booties acting as Evian bottle cozies on the airplane ride home.
I finished everything but the crocheted laces on the ride home. As soon as I was home, I pulled out my crochet hook and whipped up some chain stitch laces for these adorable booties.
Aren't they just too cute? I seem to have a lot of friends with new babies these days, so I think you might be seeing more and more little projects on my blog. I've never been much of a baby bootie knitter. In fact, these are only my 3rd pair. But I can see myself getting into the groove.
What's your favorite baby bootie pattern?
I took my April installment of the Knitting Central Sock Club socks with me to Italy. I managed to cast on the socks en route to the airport and finish them before flying home. Let me show you the fun these Rainbow Swirl Socks had while touring Italy.
Yes - I set up shop in the bathroom in our hotel in Venice because I was suffering from some terrible jetlag - so I put the chair in the bathroom at 0200 in the morning and knit for several hours. I was able to knit and not disturb BF. Knitting really is the solution to jetlag. That's what I think.
Knitting at the coffee shop in the afternoon. Lots of dark delicious Italian cappuccino is another remedy for jet lag.
My sock is taking a romantic gondola ride through the canals of Venice. Lucky sock.
Talk about lucky sock... now it's being held by our gondolier.
My 2nd sock is in Florence enjoying the sights and a yummy calzone. It's a wonder I didn't gain any weight on this trip!
My sock with Michaelangelo's David (this is where the original David stood before being moved inside the Galeria Accademica. This is a replica that stands outside. I guess what we have here are 2 near masterpieces!
Both socks - now with heel flaps on the Trenitalia to Rome.
Major Knitter and the sock on the Spanish Steps near our hotel in Rome.
My sock touring the Roman Colosseum
Look! Live footage of a Roman Gladiator knitting a Rainbow Swirl Sock!
Sock Two gets a coffee break in Rome's Piazza Navona
Nearly done. More zero-dark-thirty knitting in the hotel.
1st sock finished and showing off at St. Peter's Square in the Vatican City.
Finished Rainbow Swirl Socks at the airport hotel in Ostia Lido. Eight days and one pair of finished socks!
PS - This pattern is by Traveling Ann - and is a Knitting Central Sock Club sock pattern exclusive to club members for the first three months. Then it will be available for sale either at Knitting Central or at The Adventures of Traveling Ann.
Of course, you know I couldn't travel, even on my honeymoon, without acquiring a bit of yarn. With the help of the ever-observant BF, I discovered a yarn shop in every town we went.
LellaBella in Venice. It was a lovely knitting shop and I'm so glad we went.
BF spotted this knitting shop in Florence as we headed toward the Ponte Vecchio. We went in and I purchased 3 skeins of yarn. The woman was very rude and said "Please to not touch the yarn" (in Italian). I was ready to walk out then. It's a good thing I got this happy picture first.
In Rome I wandered into this teeny tiny knitting store - but there were 2 other customers in line in front of me and aside from some nice cashmere, there was nothing that caught my eye (considering I had limited luggage space) except this door handle. It's a ceramic skein of yarn! How creative. This alone was worth the stop.
In Ostia Lido (the airport hotel's location) I didn't find a knitting store, but I did purchase three knitting magazines in Italian. Here's a picture of the sum of my knitting purchases in Italy.
BF and I just spent a dreamy ten days in Italy for our honeymoon. It was everything a honeymoon ought to be. I can't limit my ABC-along to one picture - so here are a handful of honeymoon images.
A gondola docked for the night on Venice's Grand Canal
Colorful houses on Burano Island - without a doubt this fishing and lace-making island was one of the highlights of the trip
A young boy feeding the pigeons at San Marco's square in Venice
Gondolas parking for the night after romancing tourists all day long
The Duomo in Florence. Yup - we thought it would be a good idea to climb the 450+ stairs up the dome.
Ponte Vecchio in Florence.
The food market in Florence. The fresh food markets with all the sights, sounds and smells are always one of my favorite places to visit when I travel.
Rome's Trevi Fountain - If you throw a coin over your left shoulder into the fountain, it's guaranteed that you'll return to Rome.
Words can't explain what it is like to visit Rome's Colliseum. I think I'll have to watch Russell Crowe in the Gladiator again.
The Forum. It's amazing to see these thousand-year ruins standing right next to homes, busy streets and hot dog vendors all in the heart of Rome.
The opening at the top of the Pantheon - when it rains, it pours. Fortunately for us, this was the one day of our honeymoon that it didn't rain.
Our morning in the Vatican City - which ended here in Saint Peter's Square - was the highlight of our trip. It was everything I always thought it would be and so much more. I think we were very fortunate that Pope Benedict was in the US while we were in Italy - as it meant about 1/3 less tourists.
Finally, Alitalia canceled our flight home without informing us - so we were stuck in Ostia Lido (if you're a New Yorker - think Queens). Rather than go back to Rome and get our hotel back, we decided to explore Ostia. We ended up having a relaxing 24 hours touring the town and meeting some locals. We even got a recommendation for this great seafood restaurant - Rucula. We ended our honeymoon with nothing but more great Italian food.
I've been working on the Warm Up America 5x7 squares. I'm trying to get as many blankets sewn together. My problem is that I'm a perfectionist. I don't want the blankets to be completely haphazard. So I have decided to mix the myriad swatches with a few that carry a theme. That's what I am trying to achieve with this purple and red heart blanket.
I carried the heart theme throughout the blanket by making 6 heart red & purple swatches. I also made some textured hearts (hard to see here) but trust me that I also knit about 4 of these. Then I tried to tie the purple and red theme together by making some multi-colored red and purple striped swatches (5 swatches). I finally made 5 swatches with red, purple and lilac in a four-quadrant theme. I think these unifying pieces tie the entire blanket together quite nicely.
I decided that I needed more inspiration so I ordered this book - 200 Knitted Blocks by Jan Eaton
It's got quite a selection of beautiful blocks. I will try to work on using some of these samples to finish some of the rest of the Warm Up America blankets throughout the year. I find them to be enjoya
